


Water Wings

by Scotty6



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Swearing, lifeguard grantaire, this bih cant swim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 00:53:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13283475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scotty6/pseuds/Scotty6
Summary: Enjolras is a "grown ass man" and can't swim. Grantaire is a lifeguard to the rescue and offers to teach him.





	Water Wings

“Courf, for the last time, I’m not wearing those!” Courfeyrac was holding up a pair of adult-sized pool swimmies with cartoon ducks on them. 

“Enjolras, you can’t swim yet. What do you want me to do; just let you drown?” Enjolras, Courfeyrac, and Combeferre all sat on the community pool’s edge with their feet in the water. There was nobody there to their ultimate surprise because of how nice the weather was. Even though it was early on a Wednesday, they were still expecting there to be at least one other person there. It was Enjolras’ twentieth Summer of not being able to swim and Courfeyrac had made the decision that this would be the year that he learned. Even though Enjolras was deathly afraid of the water, Courfeyrac was determined. The sun was shining too brightly but Enjolras opted to squint rather than wear sunglasses and give Courfeyrac the illusion that he was enjoying himself.

Combeferre slipped himself into the shallow end of the pool where the water reached his mid abdomen. He stood in front of Enjolras and held his arms out to him as though he were coaxing a child into the water.

“I got you, buddy.” Even though Ferre’s words sounded patronizing, his tone was completely serious. 

“Ferre, are you fucking kidding me?!” Enj’s cheeks were burning red with complete and total humiliation. He knew in his heart of hearts that he was being silly but he 100% thought he was going to drown in this community pool and that was not the way he wanted to go. “Can you both just go? I think I’d be able to concentrate better if I was alone.” Enjolras' eyes were directed at his knees because he honestly couldn’t stand to look either one of them in the eyes at that moment. 

Courfeyrac laid his hand on his shoulder and gave Ferre a look before getting up to leave, being sure to leave the swimmies right next to Enjolras. Ferre followed suit and pulled himself out of the pool to join Courf in his walk to the car.

“We’ll be back in a half hour.” Combeferre promised, grabbing his towel. 

When they had passed the gate the pool area, Enjolras let out a heavy sigh. Twenty years of being left out of pool parties and late night swims because of his fear of water.  _ Why is this so fucking hard? I’m a grown ass man. _ He took a deep breath. Then another. Then one more for good luck before sliding himself into the pool. 

Enjolras immediately panicked and thrashed his arms around wildly. He was absolutely positive he was drowning and began to scream, hoping someone would hear him. Not two more seconds later, he was being ripped above the surface by his arm. 

“Bro, what the fuck? Just stand up!” Enjolras felt the bottom of the pool on his feet and breathed in shakily as he ran his fingers through his hair, visibly stressed. He caught his breath and looked up at the stranger who was kneeling by the edge of the pool, his arm still firmly in his grasp to ensure that Enjolras wouldn’t have another near death experience. He was wearing black sunglasses and red swimming trunks with a white cross on them. 

“You’ve been here the whole time?” 

_ Wow, what about “thank you for saving my life, benevolent stranger”.  _

_ “ _ Yeah. I guess you were too caught up in your existential crisis to notice that I was sitting literally ten feet away from you.” The stranger was blunt in a way that made Enjolras feel strangely comforted. He liked that the lifeguard wasn't coddling him like his friends had. He held out his other hand for Enjolras to shake it. “Grantaire.” Enj took his calloused hand in his own and shook it as firmly as he could muster, considering the weakness of his two-second anxiety attack looming over his entire body. 

“Enjolras.” The lifeguard,  _ Grantaire _ , looked at him in wonder for a second. 

“So you really don’t know how to swim? You’re like fifteen.” Enjolras let out an angry puff. 

“I’m twenty.”

“Dude, that’s even worse.” Grantaire smirked back in response to Enjolras’ death glare. “Let me teach you, I’ve got nothin’ better to do, as you can see.” Enjolras looked out to the empty pool and then back to Grantaire. Odds were that he’d never even see him again so his embarrassment fell onto the back burner. He nodded slowly and Grantaire pushed himself into the pool so that he was standing next to Enjolras in the water. He was shorter than him, which Enj wasn’t expecting, but he was way more muscular than him. “Once I’m done with you, you’ll be doing back flips off that diving board without a care in the world, my friend.” 

Enjolras snorted out a, “Yeah, right.”. He was still shaking a little from the fear even though his feet were touching the ground and the water only came to his stomach. Grantaire ignored his comment, taking off his sunglasses and putting them on the edge of the pool next to Courfeyrac’s swimmies. 

“Enjolras, are you kidding me? These are grade fuckin’ A.” Grantaire picked up the water wings and slid them onto his own arms.

“Keep them,” Enjolras said miserably. 

“Oh, come on. Don’t be so cranky. The water really isn’t too bad once you got the hang of it. I’ll teach you to love it!”

**Author's Note:**

> "Happy Birthday, Raven!"   
> "I can't swim."


End file.
